Share this article

Emmanuel Macron's and Marine Le Pen's voters couldn't be more different. They represent a divided France, both geographically, socially and most significantly in how they see the future of their country. The presidential runoff vote represents a clash of two very different France's.

Here's a reminder of the first round vote share - centrist Macron brought in 23.75 percent of votes, ahead of National Front (FN) leader Le Pen on 21.53 percent, according to final results.

In other words, 8.53 million French people voted for Macron, compared to 7.66 million for Le Pen.

Where are the voters?

The map below, from France's Interior Ministry, shows a very divided France indeed.

Pink denotes Macron's voters, mostly across the western half of France, but also in pockets of central France and in the east. He led in 42 departments overall.

He also well and truly won the Ile de France region, with 34.8 percent of voters in Greater Paris ticking his name.

Purple represents far-right Le Pen, who enjoyed her typical support from the north east and the south east, winning 47 departments. But she only pulled in 4.99 percent of support from Parisians in Ile-de-France, finishing fifth overall.

Below are the full results for the Greater Paris region.

As for Paris itself, here's how the residents of all 20 arrondissements voted. Macron was most popular, winning 13 arrondissements - mostly in the centre of Paris, but also in the north and south.

Francois Fillon won five arrondissements, all to the west, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon won the 19th and 20th to the north east.

Le Pen, on the other hand, performed best in the less densely populated areas, like Aisne, Ardennes, Meuse, Haute-Saône, Haute-Marne, Pas-de-Calais and Somme. Her only big city was Nice, in her south eastern stronghold.

What kind of people are the voters?

Geography aside, it's of course impossible to know for sure exactly who voted for whom.

An Ipsos poll published on April 17th showed that 37 percent of labourers voted Le Pen, 32 percent of low-wage earners, and around a quarter of unemployed people. She also topped the votes for under 24s.

For Macron, a third of high-wage earners put his name in the ballot box, and 30 percent of highly educated voters. He topped the list for those earning €3,000 a month or more in salary.

Opinion polls in the lead up to the election gave a good insight into the two sets of voters.

"It's true that he's not as strong as Marine Le Pen among young voters but he is much stronger than her among older generations," Edouard Lecerf from the polling institute Kantar Public told The Local in the lead up to the election.

Macron's supporters are typically well educated upper middle earners, or "the French that are doing well", according to Bruno Cautres from the Cevipof institute.

"They have a good education, good jobs and good opportunities and have optimistic views about the future," he told The Local.

"They are from the France that has not suffered because of inequalities."

Le Pen supporters at her Paris rally spoke of the importance of putting France first, stopping radical Islamism, and clamping down on immigration. "We want our country back," came the plea over and over again.

"Voting for Le Pen is about getting the forgotten France back again," said Quentin a 29-year-old political adviser for the National Front.